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U.S. Department of Transportation U.S. Department of Transportation Icon United States Department of Transportation United States Department of Transportation

International Border Crossing Electronic Screening Field Operational Test

Goal

To improve motor carrier safety and efficiency at U.S. international borders by designing, developing performance specifications, testing, and evaluating the International Border Crossing (IBC) Electronic Screening (e-Screening) system.

Background

The IBC e-Screening concept leverages the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's (FMCSA's) investment in the FMCSA Query Central (QC) and Customs Border Patrol's (CBP's) Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) to provide an automated, data-driven approach to selection of vehicles for inspection at the northern and southern borders, enabling uniform and consistent application of policies and procedures related to safety and compliance assurance of cross-border commercial traffic. IBC e-Screening will enable northern and southern border States and FMCSA to utilize the QC-ACE data in an automated system-to-system environment, enabling identification and full safety and compliance verification of carriers, trucks, trailers, and drivers electronically, within 3 seconds or less of a truck's presentation at a State IBC processing point rather than the current 15-minute manual process.

Summary

This study was to design and develop performance specifications and test and evaluate an IBC e-Screening system that would:
  • Electronically identify the carrier, truck, trailer, and driver associated with commercial trucks entering the United States at land ports using radio frequency identification transponders (already installed on 90 percent of the trucks entering the United States from Mexico and Canada).
  • Electronically screen each trip component for factors of interest to State and FMCSA inspectors, providing for full safety and compliance verification of carriers, trucks, trailers, and drivers, each time they enter the United States.
  • Display the screening results to State and FMCSA enforcement officers and inspectors to assist them in making more informed inspection selection decisions in fixed and mobile operations, as well as mainline and ramp settings (thus significantly increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of their operations).
  • Enable data monitoring/reporting by States and FMCSA to better position each organization to fulfill its mission.

Outcomes

A Border Safety Application that provides information from the QC-ACE system to inspectors on a tablet device or laptop. Also, a report that provides performance specifications of the screening system and evaluates the feasibility of deploying this system at U.S. border crossing sites.

Milestones

February 2014: Begin FOT
July 2014: End FOT

Funding

FY 2013: $600,000
FY 2015: $450,000

Current Status

Final report completed and in review.

Contractor

Battelle Memorial Institute
 
Last updated: Thursday, June 28, 2018